Birth Control has contributed to the evolution of our society

For years and years, the health professions have been expanding their job market by creating new jobs and opportunities for professionals to take part in. Sexual health is one sector of the health professions and includes a wide range of different types of jobs including gynecology, and a planned parenthood professional. Not only has sexual health opened an abundance of jobs, but it has boosted the economy by offering their relatively cheap services for the public to use.

The medical profession continues to have job opportunities becoming readily available at an insane rate to allow for the influx of people wanting to go into this profession. “Not only is it the top-paying job in the U.S., employment for medical doctors is projected to grow 14 percent from 2014 to 2024, twice as fast as the average for all other occupations” (Ward). Planned parenthood, a branch of sex ed, brings in an annual amount of $229.9 million. Although it sounds like a lot of money and a very successful business, not every patient pays for their preventative care from a planned parenthood center. Mariam Berg, a writer for Planned Parenthood Action Fund writes, “At least 60% of all Planned Parenthood patients rely on public health programs like Medicaid and Title X for their preventative and primary care.” This only becomes a problem when people like Trump are in power and maintain the ability to defund organizations. If Planned Parenthood were to be defunded, patients who rely on public health programs will be blocked from receiving their care. Of the 4 million people that reply on public health programs to receive their care, over 1.5 million are patients of preventative care that is offered by these organizations. If anyone were to be successful at defunding Planned Parenthood, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that taxpayers would have to pay over $130 million over 10 years and even though cheaper alternative birth controls are readily available, they are not as effective in preventing pregnancy as other types that are distributed through an organization. Although many people would like to see the defunding of Planned Parenthood, most of them do not know that taxpayers would have to pay the difference in funding.

Not only does it open a job market, Planned Parenthood and sex education has had an effect on the societal norms and our country’s success. Without the combination of sex education in middle school and the establishments of Planned Parenthood centers, our society would be unable to evolve. Prior to the 1960’s when birth control was made federally legal, there were no predetermined, widely accepted methods. It was not until the 1930’s that the latex condom, the first preventative invention was introduced to our society. Even though it was available before the 1900’s, it wasn’t until the turn of the century that “white women, [started] showing their ability to cut their fertility in half, [and] averaged 3.56 children” (Roy). Although birth control was still not popular at the turn of the century, men would use “coitus interruptus” and pull out before ejaculation. Today, we know that this essentially does nothing. There is no protection from STI’s and there’s still the high chance of becoming pregnant. During the same time, women were still being taught the “roles of a women” by teaching home economics in schools. Women were meant to stay at home, take care of the children, and provide a nice environment for the man to live in. Unlike today in American colleges, women have become the majority of college attendees, obtaining masters and bachelor degrees so they can enter the workforce as mentally prepared as any other man. This advancement in gender equality is partly due to the increase in popularity of birth control. Instead of getting pregnant, having many kids, and staying home to take care of the household, women are out getting an education and higher paying, executive jobs. “Among Fortune 500 companies, women make up about 15% of female executive officers- members of the senior leadership team” (Swanson). The advancements and establishments of Planned Parenthood centers has allowed our society to evolve and change over time, leading to a women-heavy higher education system, and a higher percentage of Fortune 500 owners.

The abundance of jobs and opportunities that are offered in the health profession allows there to be constant medical advancements that have a direct benefit on our society. Without birth control, women would be having an abundance of children leading to a retrograde in our country.